I live in Baltimore. Last year on Election Day, while I was out working to GOTV we received a robo-call at our house around 6pm telling us:
Hello I’m calling to let everybody know that Governor O’Malley and President Obama have been successful. Our goals have been met. The polls were correct, and we took it back. We’re okay. Relax. Everything’s fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight. Congratulations, and thank you.
It was yet another dirty trick from the Republican Party of Maryland and former Governor and douchebag Bob Ehrlich.
Well, today Ehrlich’s Communication Director and a well known scum for hire in Maryland politics were indicted on multiple counts of election fraud. TPM has details here and Steve Benen weighs in here.
The Indictment, posted at the Baltimore Sun, is pretty amazing in the way it pulls back the curtain on Republican efforts to suppress the vote by any means necessary.
This kind of voter suppression effort is a pillar of Republican Confederate Party electoral strategy. It is going on in every State in the Union and by any means that they can get away with using. In Maryland they were caught (this time) and prosecuted (this time). But in most places and in most cases there is no penalty.
Why?
You know why: IOKIYAR. That’s why.
And how about a fresh Open Thread.
Cheers
Spaghetti Lee
Glad they caught him. Hope he goes to jail for a good long time.
Litlebritdifrnt
The NC legislature has just passed new Voter ID laws requiring at least one form of picture ID in order to vote. Basically disenfranchising millions of people who have no way of getting to DMV to get a photo ID. No word yet on how this affects absentee ballots. New Republican mantra “if we can’t stop them at the ballot box we will just stop them voting”. This disgusts me.
beltane
As the United States creeps towards no longer being a white majority country, you can expect the Republican party to resort to increasingly desperate measures to prevent everyone who is not of their tribe from voting. The problem with this is that it ultimately deligitimizes the whole concept of representative government. It’s one thing to permanently disenfranchise small segments of the population, quite another to do so with rapidly growing ones. The backlash against this type of thing tends to be rather nasty, though I don’t know what the tipping point is.
Poopyman
Maryland ftw!
Even though my Southern Md county is too far republican, I’m really glad Ehrlich takes thw hit.
General Stuck
I’m not sure this tactic has ever really benefited the GOP in the end, electorally. It is most prevalent in the south and the south is not going to vote for the current dem party on a national ticket anyways, and the efforts in so called swing states outside the south, I have my doubts it has helped them much.
It is obscene however, and a slap in the face to the concept of democracy, and feedings of red meat for the xenophobic right wing faithful. And it won’t save them from the wrath of not only increasing minority voters, but ever increasingly some of their faithful in other categories, mostly economic, like seniors and a chunk of the union vote.
It is a sign of utter desperation, in my view, this spasmic full frontal assault on traditional lib voting blocks that also include quite a few conservative voters as well. That up to now, have been perfectly content being bullshitted into voting against their own interests based on cultural or ideological agreement with the wingers. Or, just hatred of anything liberal. Becoming so obvious about it is a ticket for disaster for the GOP in the long run.
That doesn’t mean they won’t in the end, find a way to monkey wrench the democratic processes in a bigger way to cling to ill gained power somewhere down the line.
Elliecat
Where I live, it is possible for most folks to get to the DMV by bus. People might have trouble finding the time, the fee for the ID, the proper documents, etc., but the actual driver’s license station itself is reasonably accessible. It’s even open on Saturday for people who might be constrained by weekday work hours!
My point is that while I believe these voter ID laws are indeed attempts at suppression and disenfranchisement, I am getting really tired of the “we’re doomed” sort of attitude I’m seeing in too many on the left.
While we fight these laws or attempts to put these laws in place, how about we also work at building, supporting, and contributing to a robust GOTV effort that works on making damn well sure as many people as possible have the required IDs? Address all of these problems: educate people about their need for the proper IDs; make sure they know how to get them or shepherd them through the process—inform them what documentation they need, how to get it, help them get it, whatever; start a fund to help people who can’t afford the fees; get volunteers to DRIVE THEM TO THE DMV!!!
At the very least, anyone concerned could provide this help to their own relatives, neighbors or friends.
Perfect Tommy
In 2006, Ehrlich’s campaign distributed sample ballots in Prince Georges County MD that listed Ehrlich and Steele as Democrats. They bused in workers from PA and DE to do the deed.
WaPo
J. Michael Neal
There are places where they aren’t so accessible. It is my understanding that there is not an office to get a government ID within the city limits of Atlanta, necessitating an extended bus trip in a place without great mass transit. If you make someone take several hours or more to get the ID necessary to vote, it *is* an effort at vote suppression, and it will be successful.
However, my understanding is also that we don’t need to worry about people not being able to afford the fee. If they charge any fee for the ID that is required to vote, that constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax. While I have my doubts about four of the justices, I’m pretty sure that allowing it is not something Anthony Kennedy would go for.
Martin
Speaking of fraud:
Civil, not criminal, but better than nothing if they do it.
Sophist
How much do you want to bet the coverage of this sputters out like a damp firework? But ACORN, who never facilitated one illegitimate vote, as far as I know, was front page news for cycle after cycle.
Damn liberal media.
jurassicpork
Once in a while, the white hats win one.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow has been covering these repeated attempts at Voter Suppression. For those who think that some folks are ‘ chicken littleing’ this topic, it’s not just about the ID. It’s a SYSTEMATIC, REPEATED PATTERN ACROSS THE COUNTRY. It’s not just ID. It’s the taking away of formerly accepted proof of residency, such as a school Id, or bills. It is the CUTTING IN HALF of early voting. It is, in Maine, turning away from a 40 year tradition of same day voter registration.
whether you call it a literacy test, poll tax, or id, the POINT of it all is the same :
VOTER SUPPRESSION.
Xenos
I am having trouble believing that a city of Atlanta has no DMV offices… but in checking the website one sees this large warning:
Yikes! Looking into if further, there is a free voter ID card you can get if you go to the county commissioner, and if you have an old expired license that works, too. But it amounts to a lot of work for people organizing a GOTV campaign.
Steeplejack
@J. Michael Neal:
I haven’t lived there in six years, but I checked on line, and there is a driver’s license/ID card service center on Capitol Avenue S.E. in downtown Atlanta. There is also one in Decatur that is very close to downtown Atlanta. Both reasonably accessible by bus.
I’m not defending these bullshit voter-suppression tactics, but, as someone mentioned upthread, it’s important not to throw up our hands and assume that the Rethuglicans have made it impossible to get the ID necessary to vote–while we’re simultaneously fighting to dismantle the bullshit ID “requirements.”
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
since it came up in the health care debate,and attempts to invalidate the law in the courts, what about the basic right to not have to get a government issued i.d.? i would love to tie them to their constitutional principles, if only there was a way to link the two.
Triassic Sands
Let’s identify them precisely so that everyone knows who we’re talking about. The Confederate name is nice for its symbolism, but we’re talking about the Modern Republican Party, not the Confederate Party. Every Republican should cringe when they are identified as belonging to the party that practices and condones voter suppression.
liberal
Don’t forget the incident, I think it was the previous electoral cycle, where Ehrlich’s people hired African-American homeless folks from Philly or something, bussed them down to Prince Georges County, and had them passing out flyers whose goal was to confuse voters about the partisan identities of the candidates.
Ehrlich is a scum.
debbie
A new definition of chutzpah: The defense lawyer claiming the robo-calls as “protected free speech.”
burnspbesq
@Debbie:
“A new definition of chutzpah: The defense lawyer claiming the robo-calls as “protected free speech.””
Sorry, but that doesn’t make a lick of sense. Since when is doing your job the way it’s supposed to be done “chutzpah?” in case you hadn’t noticed, political speech is the core of what is protected by the first amendment.
Rule 3.1 of the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct says:
burnspbesq
Just so we’re clear: if the prosecutors can prove that crimes were committed, then I want the guilty parties to be punished. That should hardly be in doubt. But the legitimacy of our criminal justice system depends on defendants being competently represented by lawyers who are willing to do whatever it takes, within the bounds of the law and the rules of professional conduct. Put another way: why shouldn’t every defendant get the quality of representation that you would want if you were accused of a crime?
debbie
Are you going to tell me the intent was to practice the right of free speech? Or was it to subvert the democratic voting process?
burnspbesq
@Debbie:
I have no idea what the intent was. And neither do you, although you seem to think you do. We’ll see what comes out at trial.
WereBear
Not only that: the constant cries of “Voter Fraud” delegitimize Democratic victories when they do come.
JohnR
@Triassic Sands: “Every Republican should cringe when they are identified as belonging to the party that practices and condones voter suppression.”
I’m sorry, did I read that correctly? This is the hill on which you’re making your stand? Anyone left in the Republican Party now is so far down that road that voter suppression would be considered a necessary evil (or positive good) to prevent the overthrow of the US by Obama’s socialist (non-white) minions and their (Not One Of Us) fellow travellers. No, they should farking cringe just to be associated with the other people in the Party and the anti-American, un-Christian policies of that party.
As for Ehrlich, and partly in response to burspbesq, he’s done this crap since he first go into politics. It’s like arresting a man standing next to a burning building holding an empty gas can and a lighter and smelling of gasoline, and having you say “We have no idea what he was there for”. Put him on trial, but the Duck Rule is in effect. Ehrlich’s finished as a politician anyway, at least at the state level, but the next guy will do just the same stuff and probably with the same staff. My money is on plea bargain/acquittal/Get Out of Jail Free Card results with little or no reporting sometime in the next year. Those guys know people who count.
Craig Pennington
@burnbesq
Yeah, I just can’t imagine what the intent of the Ehrlich campaign could have been in calling people pretending to be with the O’Malley campaign and saying “[W]e took it back. We’re okay. Relax. Everything’s fine.” It’s a real freaking puzzler.
Or maybe sometimes provisionally coming to the obvious conclusion is justified given history. Yeah, there is perhaps a non-zero chance that the intent was not to suppress pro-O’Malley voter turnout. But it’ll take some damned good positive evidence to convince me of that.
shortstop
Why did I think you live in CA?
Roger the Cabin Boy
What are the sentences for this, 5 years or something like that? Should be 25 or more, with no possibility of parole. Systematic and sustained efforts to deprive millions of citizens of their civil right to vote because of their purported political leaning is an offense against democracy itself. People like this should be kept away from society for a very, very long time, sending a message of just how serious this crime really is.